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XP SP3: STOP 0x0000007E (0xC000001D) (solved)

Update: If you arrived here, looking for a solution to a blue screen problem that started to occur on Feb 12th, 2010 - this is a different kind of problem. The solution to that can be found here: Heise Online (English). Basically, it is a side-effect of a Microsoft update (MS10-015) that triggers a flaw in an already present bootkit malware, which then leads to the blue screen of death problem.

From time to time (i. e. every workday ;-)) I still use Windows XP. Recently I kept getting complaints about the system partition being too full. I guess on all operating systems this can have all kinds of funny (or disastrous) effects, so I tried to clean up a little.
Apart from the usual suspects (temporary internet files, some huge downloads on the desktop and the like) I noticed that there were literally dozens of $NtUninstall...$ folders containing the setup/uninstall files for a lot of updates that had accumulated over time.

I realized that those could be deleted, however I prefer having a "clean" system, so I went for Service Pack 3 first which should include all the individual patches anyway.

The SP3 network install package first complained about the RDP 6.0 MUI Pack (KB925877) being incompatible with SP3 and that I had to remove it first. Doing so via the Control Panel did not work for some reason: It disappeared from the list, however the SP3 setup still complained. I had to manually delete the registry key pointing to it (HLKM/Software/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/Hotfix/KB925877) before the SP3 setup would start.

After a while it reported a successfully finished installation and asked for a reboot. So I did....
After the POST I got a quick glance at the XP boot screen which was very quickly replaced with a blue screen of death (official: "STOP error") with these details:

I looked at my BIOS settings and found the "XD Technology" option set to "on".
According to Intel's support glossary this is the "Execute Disable" feature, so I tried again having it switched off.
This just replaced the error codes, the BSOD remained:

Neither Safe Mode nor regular boot succeeded. Using a different machine I came across some other people with the same problem. This forum entry gave me the necessary clue - probably one of the next things I would have tried anyway: It's a USB driver problem. I removed all USB peripherals - good thing to have a PS/2 keyboard lying around and that "legacy" port on your mainboard - and Windows immediately booted normally.
I did not try to reattach the USB devices, but went right to the device manager and removed everything in the USB category. Even without another reboot I just let it then search modified hardware, having it re-detect all the stuff I had removed a minute before.
One more reboot, with everything attached an everything is back to normal. Now I can finally delete the superfluous files for which I started this whole odyssey...

I work for a minor league baseball stadium in the entertainment department. One of our production computers was having this same problem. I Googled the stop code and found your blog -- and it worked! Thanks!

After scouring the web, (along with many others apparently with the same problem),and being directed often to the Microsoft site or some other non-helpful site, I came upon your blog. Thanks much for posting the solution.

I tried removing all USB devices including the mouse. My keyboard is plugged into the normal keyboard socket, not a USB. I tried rebooting in safe mode, normal mode,in fact all of the choices and it always comes back to the same blue screen as shown in your heading.

Often there are USB devices that are connected inside the computer's case. A card reader for SD and other memory cards comes to mind. Do you have slots for these in your computer's front panel? I suggest opening the case and checking the connections to your motherboard. If you are not comfortable handling these things, better get someone with experience to help you.

We are having problems with Dell PCs after Service Pack II installs. Unplugging the USB devices allowed booting to windows with no BSOD. We have VNC instaled on all or PCs and I was able to connect to the offending PC and delete the USB controllers reboot and reinstall them. After that everything worked fine. Thanks for the great find........

I had a computer that did not have PS2 ports either. I was able to get a keyboard and mouse to work on the computer by plugging in a USB-Powered Hub and then attaching the keyboard and mouse to the hub. For whatever reason the system allowed this did not blue screen. This then allowed me to install an updated chipset and get everything work as before.

I had the same problem immediately after installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 on a Dell Optiplex. It has no PS2 port, but I was able to attach a Dell monitor with USB ports and attach my keyboard and mouse to it.

Just fixed a PC with this - just use a usb hub with mouse and keyboard plugged into it. Also dont delete "composite USB device" as that will stop USB working altogether!Many, many thanks to everybody, much appreciated.

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